Not so long ago, having a fax machine in your office meant that your business was on the cutting edge—suddenly, documents could be sent to the other side of the world in a matter of seconds. These days, that bulky contraption in the corner of your office doesn't seem so impressive. New technologies like Internet faxing are quickly making fax machines obsolete.
Internet faxing—also known as virtual fax, paperless fax, and online faxing—enables consumers to manage all fax interactions through an online account. The service has grown in popularity because it is not only more convenient than its alternative; it is also much less expensive. With traditional faxing, a typical small business spends close to $1000 per year replacing paper, ink, and toner. With Internet faxing, all of these concerns are unnecessary: customers find that they use less paper because they only print the documents they need—they also completely eliminate expensive ink or toner and never need a separate phone line. Waste is prevented because all fax transactions are made through a computer account and "spam" can be deleted before it ever goes to print. Moreover, the actual cost of online faxing is very reasonable: services can be found for as little as ten dollars per month.
While owners of traditional fax machines experience the frustration of paper jams, busy signals, and messy paper files; those who have Internet faxing find the service convenient. Faxes are sent directly to email, so the recipient can simply save them in a computer. Also, as Steve Adams illustrates in his article "Cut the Cord": "while small business owners and their employees could be anywhere on a given day, the traditional fax machine is always back at the home office, making the documents inaccessible until they return." Faxes can even be transmitted to a mobile phone where they can be viewed anywhere at any time. Good online fax services provide the option of a toll-free 800 number, which encourages communication from customers located all over the country. With online faxing, clients also have the ability to send faxes from wherever they may have access to a computer. When such convenience is taken into account with the service's affordability, it is no wonder that Internet faxing is in increasingly high demand by today's business owners.
See Also:
Adams, Steve. "Cut the Cord: Get up and Go with the Freedom of Internet Faxing". Small Business Technology Magazine. 1 November 2006. http://www.sbtechnologymagazine.org/
"How Does Faxing Over the Internet Work?"
"How to Fax a Document on a Computer Using an Internet Fax Account"
Elizabeth Kelsey is a writer who lives in Tallahassee, Florida.
For more business articles by Elizabeth Kelsey, please visit www.patlive.com.
